Missourians suffering from WWII-era radioactive contamination ask House panel for help

      A House committee has heard from dozens of Missourians that it could help secure relief for families that have suffered for decades due to radioactive contamination throughout the St. Louis region.

Representatives Tricia Byrnes (at podium) and Richard West (behind her) are joined by dozens of St. Louis region residents ahead of a committee hearing about their resolutions dealing with radioactive contamination left in that region by work related to the Manhattan Project. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Nuclear weapons development and testing there in the 1940s and ‘50s contributed to the U.S. having the atomic bombs used in World War II.  That work, also known as “The Manhattan Project,” also eventually led to the dumping of nuclear waste near Lambert airport which contaminated soil, Coldwater Creek, and the Creek’s floodplain. 

Residents who live or have lived, or whose families have lived, in the affected region, testified for more than four hours Tuesday night about House Concurrent Resolutions 21 and 22, which would trigger an investigation by state agencies into whether those residents could be eligible for federal relief funds in programs that already exist to compensate those harmed by nuclear testing.

      The Committee on General Laws heard story after story of cancer clusters; high concentrations of extremely rare diagnoses; and of mental, physical, and financial suffering that has impacted multiple generations. 

      The sponsor of HCR 21 is Tricia Byrnes (R-Wentzville), whose son was diagnosed at age 15 with thymoma, a form of cancer typically caused by the use of radiation or chemotherapy to treat a different cancer.  Some experts have told her that his may be the only case in history of thymoma being a patient’s primary diagnosis. 

      It was his diagnosis that led to her investigating the issue of contamination in the St. Louis region, and eventually to filing HCR 21.

      “St. Louis people are [here tonight] because they still are going disregarded, disrespected, and absolutely gaslighted.  I’m getting people who are texting me now going, ‘I have two forms of breast cancer that are not the same cancer and they’re not genetically related,’ and what they’re asking me that’s the most troubling is, ‘I don’t know what I did.  Do you think it’s related?’  That’s not a question for me.  That’s a question for our federal government,” said Byrnes.

      Representative Richard West (R-Wentzville), who sponsors HCR 22, said he began learning about the situation after his mother was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.  He learned that one cause of that form of cancer is contaminated water, and he knew that among the sites tested for radioactive contamination were wells like those on his parents’ property.  

      “A year later I am knee-deep in one of the largest atrocities laid on the American people by their government.  The issue spreads from the Mallinckrodt sites in St. Louis City out to Latty Avenue, the Berkeley, Bridgeton, and Hazelwood areas, Coldwater Creek through Bridgeton and the legacy landfills, and finally out into St. Charles County’s Weldon Springs site, owned by the Department of Energy,” said West.  “While most of these sites are proclaimed as ‘cleaned up,’ we are constantly finding hot spots and families impacted by these areas and the dangers they hold.”

      One of those who testified Tuesday was Christen Commuso, the Community Outreach Specialist with the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.  Commuso also lived in St. Ann until the age of 7, and often played in Coldwater Creek.  She is among those diagnosed with cancer at an early age, as well as other diagnoses.  Among other procedures she has undergone, she has had her gallbladder and left adrenal gland removed, and had to have a total hysterectomy. 

      She told lawmakers that the emotional and physical tolls on her and her family have been massive, and the cost at times is so great that she is forced to skip appointments or tests. 

Representatives Richard West and Tricia Byrnes (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

“For each one of us here today there are probably 20 back home facing the same challenges or worse.  That’s why I’m asking you to stand with us.  Help ease some of the burden and fight for the medical monitoring and compensation this region deserves,” said Commuso.  “Now is the time for the people and the state to work together.  St. Louis stepped up to save the nation.  Now it’s time the nation stepped up to save St. Louis.”

      Karen Nickel grew up in Hazelwood and played in a park on the bank of Coldwater Creek, and the Creek flooded other local playgrounds and backed into her parents’ basement. 

      “We played in that park.  We ate snow during snowball fights.  We took the honeysuckle off the banks of the Creek and sucked the stuff out of them.  We spent a lot of time there,” said Nickel.  “I am sick.  I have three autoimmune diseases.  I have lupus, psoriatic arthritis, I have Sjogren’s disease,” said Nickel. 

      She and other residents explained that the impacts of this contamination go beyond any one individual.  Some families spend decades trying to keep more than one of their members alive.  The radiation can also cause mutations that put future generations at risk, even when there had been no history of such diseases in those families prior to the contamination. 

      “It’s very fearful for us moms that have grown up in that area when your children are pregnant and about to deliver a child.  I can’t even explain to you the fear that you have when your kids are sick with a simple headache or a stomach ache,” said Nickel.

      Thomas Whelan taught for 30 years at Francis Howell High School, a school that was within walking distance of a uranium processing facility.  He and several others said that as that site was cleaned up students were exposed to particulate matter and other contaminants. 

      “When that plant was imploded … I was there.  We were watching the whole thing go down.  It was like an implosion, and that dust, guess where it went?  A thousand feet away into the playing fields of Francis Howell, into the duct work of Francis Howell, into the air system of Francis Howell,” said Whelan.  “There’s kids still at that school right now and many of those kids are second and third generation Francis Howell students who might, and may not know this, have the altered DNA that they’re going to continue to pass on.”

      “You’re taking the first step,” Whelan told legislators.  “This is going to be one of the biggest environmental cover-ups in U.S. history and we are starting, right now, today, asking you to start that process.” 

      The committee has not voted on those resolutions.

House approves limited medical marijuana proposal

The Missouri House has voted to allow those suffering from terminal and debilitating conditions to use medical marijuana.  The proposal now goes to the state Senate for consideration.

Representative Jim Neely sponsored HB 1554, a medical marijuana proposal, that the House sent to the Senate on May 1, 2018. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications – click for larger version)

House Bill 1554 would expand on a law passed in 2014 that allows the use of a cannabis extract, cannabidiol (CBD) oil, to treat intractable epilepsy.  If HB 1554 became law, a patient suffering from conditions including cancer, HIV, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and post-traumatic stress disorder could use medical marijuana if a doctor signs a statement saying he or she could benefit from its use and that all options approved by the Food and Drug Administration have been considered.

The House voted 112-44 to send that bill to the Senate, but some Republicans spoke against IT even though it is sponsored by one of their fellows.

Pacific Republican Kirk Mathews said the legislative process is not the proper way for a drug to be approved.

“I don’t know of any other medicines that become medicine by an act of the legislature versus the process that we’ve gone through for years in the history of our country and medicine in our country, with FDA clinical trials, double-blind studies, etcetera, etcetera,” said Mathews.

He also argued that the bill is too broad in what conditions it would allow medical marijuana to be used for, because it would allow the Department of Health and Senior Services to add conditions to that list if at least ten physicians sign a petition calling for it to be added.

“We don’t know what conditions we are allowing this to be used for if we pass this bill,” said Mathews.

Representative J. Eggleston (R-Maysville) said passing HB 1554 would send Missouri down a similar path to that the nation has taken with opioids.  Those are now seen as the crux of a health crisis, but they started off as a way to treat pain.

Representative Kirk Mathews (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications – click for larger version)

“Surely the companies behind them would only care about relieving others’ pain and doctors would only prescribe for that reason, and the recipients would only use them for that reason and not use them for that reason and not use them for recreational fashion, and surely it wouldn’t get away from us to where other people would rob medicine cabinets or things like that, and yet all of that stuff is happening.  Now we’re having to deal with the aftermath of those unintended consequences,” said Eggleston.

The bill was sent to the Senate on the strength of bipartisan support.  Representative Clem Smith (D-Velda Village Hills) told bill sponsor Jim Neely (R-Camdenton), who is a doctor, that he hoped the bill would become law.

“I know in your career you’ve seen a lot of different things, seen a lot of people that have been impacted, and maybe in your thinking, you’re like, ‘Hey, this might help them get through life or increase their standard of living,’ so just wanted to thank you for it,” said Smith.

The bill also earned support from some in House leadership, including the Majority Floor Leader, Rob Vescovo (R-Arnold).

“I think [Representative Neely] has done a fantastic, fabulous job, channeling this down to what the members of this body wanted to see,” said Vescovo.  “I’m going to go ahead and cast my vote for the terminally ill in my district and across the state.”

HB 1554 goes to the Senate with less than three weeks remaining in the legislative session.

Earlier stories:  

Missouri House considers legalizing medical use of marijuana

Bill to legalize limited medical marijuana heard in House committee

Missouri House considers legalizing medical use of marijuana

The Missouri House is one vote away from proposing that Missouri legalize the medical use of marijuana by people suffering from certain terminal or debilitating conditions.

Representative Jim Neely (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications – click for larger version)

House Bill 1554 would expand on a law passed in 2014 that allows the use of a cannabis extract, cannabidiol (CBD) oil, to treat intractable epilepsy.  If HB 1554 became law, a patient suffering from conditions including cancer, HIV, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and post-traumatic stress disorder could use medical marijuana if a doctor signs a statement saying he or she could benefit from its use and that all options approved by the Food and Drug Administration have been considered.

The bill is sponsored by Representative Jim Neely (R-Cameron), who is also a doctor.

“There’s a lot of people in my world, from the hospice and the long-term care world, that feel that this would be appropriate for people to ease the pain, suffering, and the side-effects of the opioids and this might be the best way to go,” said Neely.  He said the bill would give people, “another option at the end stages of life.”

House members including Travis Fitzwater (R-Holts Summit) spoke about loved ones that might benefit from the legislation, such as his mother and sister who have multiple sclerosis.

Fitzwater said their neurologist, who he knows and trust, has said they should have the option of using marijuana for pain treatment.

“I trust his opinion.  He went to medical school.  He knows what he’s talking about.  He’s spent his career focused on multiple sclerosis and his patients are mainly multiple sclerosis patients,” said Fitzwater.  When he tells me that … [my] mom or [my] sister should have the option to come to their neurologist and discuss treatment options for pain – and this is a gentleman who is as professional as anybody I’ve ever met – they ought to have that opportunity.”

“Patients that have these debilitating diseases ought to have an option … when the doctors agree and there are professionals involved that know more about what’s going on with those patients than we do,” said Fitzwater.

Representative Gina Mitten (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications – click for larger version)

Representative Gina Mitten (D-St. Louis) said a colleague of hers who is a practicing attorney must break her oath to uphold the law by using marijuana to treat her epilepsy, rather than use the prescription drugs that caused her to have a psychotic episode among other side effects.

“How is it that it’s okay to have to spend a night, or two nights, or three nights in a hospital due to medication that’s been prescribed and creates all kinds of other side effects, as opposed to something that we know in other states has worked very well for this disease?” asked Mitten.

Pacific Republican Paul Curtman sponsored adding PTSD to the legislation.  He described what he knows some of his fellow comrades in the Marine corps faced, and said leaving this issue facing veterans out of the bill would be a “travesty.”

He spoke about a fellow Marine from Missouri whose experience overseas included having to routinely wash the blood of friends out of the back of a Humvee.  Curtman said the man was prescribed by the Veterans’ Administration drugs that had numerous side effects.  For a time he used marijuana and that worked for him, but he was arrested and forced to return to the drugs prescribed by the VA.

“The VA came by and said if you ever [use marijuana] again you’re jeopardizing your ability to use any of your VA benefits.  So, after being on house arrest for a while with the VA checking up on him to make sure that he was taking the synthetic drugs that the VA wanted him to take, his father came home just a few weeks later only to find that his son had put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger,” said Curtman.

Under the bill the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services would issue medical cannabis registration cards to approved patients, or to parents in the cases of minor parents.  The bill would only allow the use of smokeless forms of marijuana.  HB 1554 also lays out how marijuana could be legally cultivated by licensed growers under the supervision of the Department of Agriculture.

Another favorable vote would send the legislation to the Senate.  Two years ago the House rejected a bill that would have asked voters whether to legalize the limited, medical use of marijuana.